Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone had noticed any ponds in the North Dallas area turning over? Is it too early for that? This will be my first fall in North Dallas, and have just noticed the last couple weeks the bike has severely dropped off when I thought it was getting ready to really pick up. Thanks for the info

I'm not sure that ponds stratify enough to turn over like lakes do. Usually turnover happens after it cools off for a while. With temps pushing 100 now I don't think much turning over is happening. The full moon might have been a factor.

Just about every pond will turn over. The ones that do not have some way to circulate water will be worse and usually will have some kind of a fish kill. This has already happened in a couple of ponds in Allen.

When I say turn over, I sort of misspoke. I was actually referring to several large aquatic vegetation kills. Seems like there are tons of dead, slimy looking flotillas of algae and plants. Do the plants typically die in Sept here?

I live in Desoto, local "wild" (if you can even call it that) pond has started to turn over. About 80% to 90% of the nasty top stuff died off.

The park 1/4 mile away that gets stocked and has a fountain on the other hand has a sever algae infestation still. That park had to get the scum raked off and was even closed because of how bad it was. I think carp will be the only way to fix it.

Turn over is when dead water is "turned over" from the bottom to the surface. In order to have turn over you have to have a thermocline. Most ponds aren't large enough or deep enough to have a turn over. Turn over is typically signified by large floats of brown/black bubbly muck. The algae that covers many ponds is simply from a lack of water movement and a lack of oxygen. When the PH balance of the water lowers, algae blooms rapidly. Same thing happens in swimming pools. Every seen a pool go from blue to green?? Same thing.

Turn over is when that dead water is forced up to the surface. Typically this happens when you get a big drop in water temps several days in a row and usually dropping several degrees (10-20). Colder water is heavier (more dense) and thus pushes down and forces the warmer water up. Again shallow ponds (under 10-15ft) wont turn over like a large lake will. If you are a regular to a lake around here like Hubbard or roberts...they will start turning over with this cooling trend we currently have now. As water temps drop in the 70s you will see more and more. Usually lasts 2-3 weeks.

musiclife_7 is dead right. I always thought the ponds turned over too but I was wrong after learning a little more. It does seem that they do but its just like he said vegetation dying off, or algae blooms.

Simply put temperature changes from warm to cold circulate the water (turn-over) where as going from cold to warmer sets up the stable temperature zones or layers. The fall season is usually the time when these two temperature trends change. If it occurs rapidly then there are likely to be problems with dead zones of poorly oxygenated water coupled with the seasonal die-off of plant life. Windy days can make a big difference by churning up the surface helping to keep the O2 levels higher. There really isn't much we can do about this seasonal change other than knowing more about the conditions that precede to help us predict when it might happen.

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Pond has to be deep to for this to happen. Stratification can only occur if you have some water depth. Even in Duckcreek Davy's link it mentions this. The shallow ponds in town will not really have turn over. Every year in the spring we see the shallow clear ponds cover with thick vegetation and in the fall it begins to die off and this causes most of what you see with the water quality this time of year. The ponds will clear back up in a month or so, unless we get severe rain and run off but that could dirty a pond any time of year.

Vegetation dying off is one thing, the pond turning over is another. There's a few ponds in Allen that are actually turning over. Makes it a royal PIA to fish but doesn't seem to effect the bite too much. I've seen it some of the ponds in Plano already as well. The vegetation will die off when the temps start to drop some. The colder it is, the more vegetation dies (in ponds). I've seen ponds that are like 90% covered in vegetation in summer be have only about 10% in winter months. The fish will transition if they don't have the normal amount of hiding spots. Keep hitting them on the head with different baits and you'll figure out what they want.